Wolfenstein 2, Six Months Later

It's been six months since Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus launched for PC, Xbox One and PS4. This sequel to 2014's Wolfenstein: The New Order appeared during a tense time in US politics, promoted and released while racism and white nationalism were at the forefront of Americans' minds. Here's how things have gone six months later.

Wolfenstein 2was teased at E3 2016 and announced officially at E3 2017.Kotaku's Luke Plunkett made a pretty great tweet.

The game quickly attracted attention for its political relevance, as America saw alt-right demonstrations and the tearing down of Confederate monuments across the country. In an August interview with PCGamer, developer Machine Games' creative director Jens Matthies said "the game isn't a commentary on current topics... we are making a game about Nazis and Nazi ideology, so on some foundational level it is a political game".

Despite Matthies' statement that the game wasn't about contemporary politics, as Wolfenstein 2's launch day neared, publisher Bethesda's advertising campaign addressed real world issues head-on. An early October ad drew on Trump's "Make America Great Again" slogan. Another ad later in the month resembled a popular meme about a protester punching white nationalist Richard Spencer in the face during the inauguration. Pete Hines, Bethesda's VP of PR and marketing, told GamesIndusty.biz that "Bethesda doesn't develop games to make specific statements or incite political discussions" but "We don't feel it's a reach for us to say Nazis are bad and un-American".

Wolfenstein 2launched on 27 October 2017, on the same day as Super Mario Odyssey and Assassin's Creed Origins. It was met with more or less favourable reviews. Its violent opening moments shocked many people, as did its bloody mid-game plot twist. Players enjoyed the game's characters (a strong point of its predecessor as well), though some found the level design a bit uninspired and the stealth clunkier than in The New Order.

In November 2017, Wolfenstein 2's first episode of DLC launched, an introduction to the three new characters who would each get their own episode of "The Freedom Chronicles". The characters' levels were uneven gameplay-wise, with some being more fun than others. This unevenness would characterise the rest of the DLC.

Wolfenstein 2got a Steam demo in late November, as well as a half-price sale. This seemed like a significant price drop so soon after release. RockPaperShotgun reflected, "This seems to be a recurring theme with Bethesda, as last year's Dishonored 2 also ended up being discounted to similar kinds of prices just weeks after it came out. At the time the discount was attributed to Dishonored 2 failing to meet sales expectations, and the same has been reported of this year's Bethesda games too."

More DLC episodes followed in December, January and March. Like the preview episode, they were uneven and ultimately not as fun as playing as BJ or other characters from the game. A steadily-dropping player count, while not unusual for a single-player game, suggested the DLC didn't give the game renewed interest.

A June 29 release date for the Switch version was announced just this week.

And that's where things are at. Real-world politics transformed Wolfenstein 2 from an eagerly-anticipated sequel into something many people hoped would be cathartic on a broader scale. Once players had it in hand, many found it didn't entirely live up to the hype its ads and context promised.

While not quite as beloved as The New Order, The New Colossus still an excellent, memorable game.

Comments

New Order was such an unexpectedly great game seeing as I went in with no expectations. As for Colossus, I liked it but it always felt like it was missing something while I was playing. The story was pretty good but I felt like I just killed the same things over and over and kept waiting for variety which didn't really come until much later. After a while it just felt too mindless and not nearly as exciting as I was hoping for. Also the final fight was a let down as it kind of just felt like a horde mode.

Real-world politics transformed Wolfenstein 2 from an eagerly-anticipated sequel into something many people hoped would be cathartic on a broader scale. Once players had it in hand, many found it didn't entirely live up to the hype its ads and context promised.
Probably because it was never supposed to be some sort of stunning political commentary and was instead supposed to be a pop-culture Super-villain Nazi-Killing Action Movie style FPS. They weren't trying to be clever, they weren't trying to be political except superficially, and they weren't trying to draw any parallels with modern society. Anything else was just a ridiculous hype machine in action for absolutely no real reason.

After really liking the new Order, I played New Colossus for 3 hours and found the combat encounters poorly designed. Stupid AI, weapon muzzle flash obscuring enemies you’re trying to shoot, really poor and overly hard stealth options, base difficulty levels badly out of balance, hard to know from which direction you’re being shot.....and more. Not a pleasant or interesting game to play in any way.
Cut scenes were really good though.
Super disappointing.

As someone who much prefers third-person to first-person game, I’ve played the first two through and am about half way through the third. It’s fun but not mind blowing, but I feel that way about the first two games too.
Hub section in the latest game is way to big and annoying to navigate.

I dont' know why but i find myself unable to get into this game.
Its odd cause it a soild FPshooter with great visuals and presentation.
Yet theres something that stops me from loving it.
I think it may be just too safe with typical fps gameplay and feels uninspired?

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